Emmy and San, you guys pretty much made my day with your sweet comments. I needed for just one person to be like, Maybe you can stick around a bit longer? Heh. I try to pretend that I can totally quit this blogging business from one day to the next but let’s be honest: there’s no way in hell I’d be able to just abandon this. The writing, and you. So I don’t know. The domain may be down for a little while sometime after mid-December (if my calculations are correct which they rarely are), and then I’ll figure out what to do depending on what kind of Christmas money I’ll receive. Muahar.

Today is First of Advent, or whatever you would call Erster Advent in English. It’s that well-kown (?) tradition of lightening a candle every Sunday for the last four weeks before Christmas. I’m at the uni library now, typing this, and by the looks of things, not very many other students decided to pay any attention to the idea of spending a comfy, Christmas-y Sunday morning at home. This place is packed, for a Sunday morning. But what I can’t believe is that it’s already basically December. Both November and October just flew by, and also? THE WEATHER IS NOR RIGHT. (Bumper sticker alert!) It’s kind of warm and only last week did the first November downpours come to town, it’s often windy but never cold, there’s people sitting outside at the restaurants and cafes- it’s just not right. It’s almost December but it still feels like October.

At uni, I’m in a strange period of Calm Before The Storm right now. Exams are coming up in about two weeks which means Insanity but also, logically, the course is coming to an end which means Comfortable Boredom. I’m motivated to get this DONE, though. After all, Christmas comes after these exams. (Also, I really just need to get them done or else.)

Realization: television becomes more ridiculous – and thus increasingly entertaining – with every day that passes. Not one but four Dutch television channels did something yesterday that they called Think Happy Day. Which, NATURALLY, meant 24 hours of Spongebob Squarepants. Episode after episode for the entire Saturday on three music channels including MTV (I don’t know why) and Comedy Central. Meanwile, CNN has taken to using its Breaking News segment sarcastically. As far as I can tell. Freakshow Sarah Palin being interviewed on Oprah? Breaking news! Tiger Woods suffering minor injuries in a car accident? Breaking news! COME ON. That’s not breaking news, it’s barely even regular news. It’s like they take the least-interesting, most unworthy non-event and shout out Breaking News! in a dramatic voice. I mean, I can tell you from personal experience that it’s fun to do this when, say, you’re talking to mom on the phone (“Dad and I have been hanging around the house all day, setting up Christmas stuff.” – “Breaking news!”). or when you’re discussing uni schedules with friends (“I think our lecture’s been moved to 3pm, Kat.” – “Breaking news!”). But CNN really shouldn’t be playing with that kind of sarcasm. At least Spongebob is actually funny.

I’m heading out to do some grocery shopping in a while, and possibly also Christmas window-shopping. I’ll sing White Christmas in my head and enjoy a hot cappuccino and a Belgian waffle, and pretend the world is more innocent than it is. Happy Advent!